At an afternoon rally here in southwest Virginia, the Republican dropped the line from his standard stump speech that there have been “43 straight months with unemployment above 8 percent.”

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The GOP nominee has been increasing the monthly count since he started running for president, and he repeated it most recently in his closing statement at Wednesday’s first presidential debate in Denver.

On Friday, Romney waited until the middle of his speech here before acknowledging the September job gains and did little to modulate his broader message.

“There were fewer new jobs created this month than last month,” Romney said. “And the unemployment rate as you noted this year has come down very, very slowly, but it’s come down none the less.”

The former Massachusetts governor personalized and humanized his remarks, noting that he wants everyone who desires a job to have one.

“I know right now you’re thinking about one job: your job,” he told a crowd of 3,300. “I’m thinking of your job as well. Person by person. Every American deserves a good job.”

Then, Romney downplayed the top-line unemployment number. He said the rate has “primarily” decreased because “more and more people have just stopped looking for work.”

“The truth is … if the same share of people were participating in the workforce today as on the day the president got elected, our unemployment rate would be around 11 percent,” he said. “That’s the real reality of what’s happening out there.”

“We don’t have to stay on the path we’ve been on,” he added. “We can do better.”

Like other Republicans seeking to minimize the Bureau of Labor Statistics announcement on Friday, Romney noted that even those with jobs are getting squeezed. He said incomes adjusted for inflation have gone down an average of $4,300 per family.

“This can’t go on,” he said. “I’ll tell you this, when I’m president of the United states — when I’m president of the United States — that unemployment rate is going to come down not because people are giving up and dropping out of the workforce, but because we’re creating more jobs. I will create jobs and get America working again!”

What the Romney campaign deliberately didn’t do Friday is challenge the accuracy of the BLS numbers, as some conservatives — including GE’s former CEO Jack Welch — did.

“We’re going to address the numbers as they’ve been released,” he said. “And I think what you see, as you’ve said on the show, is an anemic trend. This is not a real recovery. This is not what a real recovery looks like.”

President Barack Obama’s campaign accused Romney of belittling economic progress, noting that businesses have added 5.2 million jobs over the past two-and-a-half years and that the unemployment rate is now at its lowest levels since January 2009. On Friday, the BLS noted that the previous two months’ figures were revised to show improvement.

In a statement released as Romney spoke here, his running mate Paul Ryan noted that “two-thirds of those who found work [last month] took part-time jobs when they are actually seeking full-time ones.” Romney didn’t make this point.